Saturday, 24 September 2011

Danish retailer Aesir said it hopes to sell its $57,400, limited-edition 18-carat gold phones to Moscow’s fashion-forward elite. The phone, which took three years to develop, is “not a play thing”, company founder Thomas Jensen said, sipping a gin and tonic on the roof top of one of Moscow’s premier hotels.

It features no extra applications: No e-mail, games, camera or GPS navigation, but its target clients are the ultra-wealthy, who have staff to manage their calendars and chauffeur them around town.

“It’s a collector’s item. People are used to collecting, say, watches, while designer phones is a practically empty niche,” Mr. Jensen told Reuters.

The firm says it will design a new phone every 18 months and produce no more than 5,000 of its classic model, sold for 42,000 euros in gold and $9,867 in stainless steel.

“Moscow is becoming a booming contemporary art city. At first people here had only money but now they have style. Their spending is more intellectual and sophisticated,” said Mathias Rajani, Aesir’s chief commercial officer.

Several of Denmark’s richest families, including the owners of toymaker Lego, invested in the developing the blocky, streamline phones, designed by Yeves Behar.

Luxury market analysts see Aesir’s designs as an alternative to high-end, gem-encrusted mobiles by Nokia’s British mobile subsidiary Vertu , costing from $6,500 to $72,500.

“It could find a place in the Russian market but definitely not in the cultural elite circles, which favour new smartphone models,” said Ms. Legotina, the Moscow representative of British consultancy Art Market Research.

“It will interest Russian Oligarchs and their girlfriends as well as businessmen whose social circles demand accessories that act as class indicators,” she said.

Aesir, which is rolling out models in Cyrillic and Chinese, generated buzz with its glitzy promotion in Moscow last week.

“This phone is amazing – the innovations behind it are also great,” said Russian tycoon Vadim Dymov, who owns a meat-packing plants in Moscow and has several conceptual art projects. ($1 = 0.735 Euros)